April 17th, 2018 Mortgage Industry Update

The Bank of Canada announced on March 7th that it’s overnight lending rate will remain at 1.25%. The prime rate thus remains at 3.45% with most lenders. The 5 year posted rate remains at 5.14%. Almost all fixed rates remain stable without any significant changes.

Additionally this week:
– Realosophy Realty: The rapid decline in Toronto housing prices in the second half of 2017 led to nearly 1,000 households losing about $135 million in market value, as some buyers walked away from deals and sellers sold homes at prices lower than what they originally bought for.

– Urbanation: Average monthly rents in Toronto up 10.7% in Q1 from 2017 to $2,206. Average annual income required to buy an average-priced resale condo now $100,000, up from $77,000. Number of units rented fell 12% from a year earlier due to the low supply.

– CMHC: Annual pace of housing starts slowed in March compared with February. Seasonally adjusted annual rate slowed to 225,213 units last month compared with 231,026 in February. Average rents nationally went up last year by 2.7% to $947 per month. Availability of rentals is becoming increasingly limited. Overall vacancy rate for cities across the country was 3% in 2017, down from 3.7% in 2016.

– TREB’s commercial arm: Total amount of commercial space leased in Toronto (6,277,221 square feet) shot up by 13.5% on a year-over-year basis during the first quarter of 2018. Over 70% of this space was in the industrial segment.

– Statistics Canada: Economy added 32,300 jobs in March. Construction added 18,300, the biggest monthly gain for the industry since February 2016, fueled by much stronger new home construction this year than most economists have been expecting. Unemployment rate unchanged at 5.8%.

– The Conference Board of Canada report: Housing starts will decline by 2.9% in 2018, a development that will be spurred by considerable drops of 4.3% in Toronto and 6.5% in Vancouver.

Stay tuned for the next update!

For any questions and concerns please do not hesitate to call Harpreet Singh The Mortgage King at (416) 795-1919.